


Set Your Course By the Stars

by In_A_Kingdom_By_The_Sea



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming
Genre: Baby’s first fic, Gen, Missing Scene, Rusty Quill Gaming - Freeform, Sasha Racket - Freeform, Their friendship just means the world to me, Zolf Smith - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22794304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_A_Kingdom_By_The_Sea/pseuds/In_A_Kingdom_By_The_Sea
Summary: “Sasha? Who taught you about the stars? I thought you grew up underground.”Sasha felt something in her chest tighten. And she remembered.
Comments: 17
Kudos: 70





	Set Your Course By the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea weeks ago in the rusty quill gaming red string brigade server and decided to spin it out into my very first fic. Thanks to all the Rogers for the friendship and encouragement. This is for y’all.

Sasha shifted on the tiles and leaned back against the chimney, looking up into the night sky.

“Right. Good. Now find the Hunter. I’ll give you a hint. Three stars, all in a row.”

“There?” the small boy next to her asked, but the expression on his face was uncertain, and he was pointing towards the wrong part of the sky. She took his hand and guided it gently to the right.

“There.”

“Orion!” the boy’s face lit up, and Sasha grinned back.

“Very good. And can you find the North Star?”

Little Maximus scanned the sky, looking for the familiar patterns Sasha had shown him, to find the one he’d been taught would always be there, fixed, unmoving, always pointing the way north. Sasha watched his face, young and soft and trusting, a scattering of freckles barely visible in the moonlight.

“It’s there! It’s that one.” He pointed, but Sasha didn’t need to follow his gaze. She knew where it was, and she knew without looking he’d found it.

“Well done. You’re getting very good at this. It took your brother ages to remember them all.” It hadn’t taken his brother that much longer, really, but Sasha knew how overshadowed Little Maximus felt in the presence of Augustus, bigger and stronger and fearless. Little Maximus was shy, and hesitant, and it had taken Sasha ages to coax him out on the roof for the first time. That was alright. The swell of pride in the small boy’s chest and the beam of his smile was all Sasha needed to see to know her patience had paid off.

They had settled back in companionable silence for a few minutes, just looking at the stars, when Little Maximus asked in a quiet voice,

“Sasha? Who taught you about the stars? I thought you grew up underground.”

Sasha felt something in her chest tighten. And she remembered. 

***

She had collapsed onto the pebbled beach where they’d finally come ashore, and slept where she lay. Somehow, they’d survived the storm and crossed the channel in that tiny driftwood boat, though they’d all gone into the water at some point. Sasha had loved the waves, being tossed about, she had clung to the mast, exhilarated. But then the wind had caught her, and before she understood what had happened, she was off the boat, underwater, lost, the salt stinging her eyes. She had never learned to swim, and she thought she would drown. Not the end she’d ever imagined for herself.

But then Zolf was there in the water with her, and his strong arms were lifting her up onto that magic disk of his, where she could breathe. The boat overturned, but Hamid was still holding on, and Sasha barely had time to wonder at the towering wall of clouds that surrounded them on all sides before the winds and the pelting rains had returned and they’d started rowing.

When she finally stirred, it was to the sound of waves on sand. It was dark out, the dead of night, and the storm had passed. Every muscle in her back and arms cried out in pain, as she rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes.

And gasped.

Sasha had seen stars before. Even as a child in Other London, she and Brock would sneak to the surface sometimes, at night, to see what mischief they could get into. And later, after Brock was gone, and Sasha was trapped in Rakefine’s townhouse, a ring held tight by magic to her finger, she would sneak up to the roof at night, to think, to shake with rage, to sleep.

But Sasha had never seen the night sky like this. The sky was full with what Sasha figured must be millions of stars – what use is the word ‘million’ if not to describe this – and all of them bright, and cold, and glittering. Diamonds beyond counting scattered across a swath of the darkest velvet. They seemed closer than they’d ever been in London, and a cloudy streak ran across the sky.

She hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath until she heard the sound of Zolf walking toward her. The off-rhythm of his boot and his peg crunching in the sand slowed and then stopped as he settled down next to her. She could see him looking at her in the corner of her eye, but couldn’t bring herself to look away from the sky above, afraid to break the spell.

“Right. Never seen it like that before, have ya?” Zolf’s voice was warm and gentle. Quiet. She knew Hamid would be asleep nearby.

“It, it never looked like that in London. I’ve seen – why does it look like that?”

“It always looks this way at sea. Out in the country too, if you’re away from - in London, there’s too many lights, too many gas lamps, at night. It drowns the stars, all but the brightest ones. Here. Look.” Zolf lay back on the sand next to her, and pointed. “Follow my finger. You see three stars, all in a row, over there? That’s Orion. Well, his belt anyway. The rest of ‘im is up there too, of course, but the belt bit’s the easiest to see. Easiest to find, when he’s in the sky.”

Sasha frowned.

“What do you mean, when he’s in the sky?”

“You can’t always see him. The stars move – well, we move, Earth, but it looks like the stars are moving across the sky. Different stars at different times of the night, at different times of the year. Sometimes you can only see Orion from the bottom half of the world. Most stars are like that.”

“I guess… I guess I never saw them enough to notice, if they were in the same place or not. They looked the same to me. Ones I could see anyway.”

“Right, well, there’s one that never moves at all. And you can always find your way north if you know which one it is. We – sailors - have been navigating by the stars for hundreds of years. Well, and a sextant. That’s a – well, it’s a little more complicated than just knowing which way is north, but that’s a starting point. Can’t really be lost if you know which way you’re going. I’ll – I’ll show you how to find it.”

And he did. They lay there for what must have been an hour, Zolf pointing out all the constellations, and telling her the stories of who they were meant to be and why they were captured in the night sky. At first Sasha asked questions about each one, but as the conversation went on, she was more and more content just to listen to him talk. His voice was quiet but more animated than she’d ever heard it, his west country accent lyrical to her Other London ears, and there was a warm and deep familiarity in the way he spoke about the stars, borne of years at sea. Even more so than on that tiny boat, Sasha felt she was getting a glimpse of the sailor Zolf had been, the man who had sailed with the Meritocratic Navy, and then sailed with pirates, and devoted his life to Poseidon, that great and terrible god who ruled the waters. Not for the first time, Sasha wondered why he’d walked away from the sea, but did not ask.

Eventually there was a peaceful silence between them, as they both lay on the beach, staring up at the vista, now full of figures and stories and tales of tragedy and heroism. And one guiding light. Zolf broke the silence first.

“Thank you. For coming with me today. Means a lot.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for coming in after me. When I went in. Saving my life. Yeah.”

Sasha was surprised to feel Zolf’s hand slip into hers. He squeezed her fingers once, letting that brief moment of affection say more, and speak more clearly, than either of them could out loud. Sasha returned the squeeze, then felt him let go, as he pulled himself to his feet and shuffled back towards the tent where Hamid still snored quietly. Sasha smiled, and closed her eyes.

Months later and thousands of years earlier, Sasha would find herself looking every night for Polaris. After Zolf left, after Bertie died, after she and Grizzop were torn away from their friends, thrown through time, after Grizzop died, died for her, after the dragons were loosed and burned everything to ash, Sasha would look for it every night as she and Cicero trudged through fields and valleys, looking for safety.

_Can’t really be lost if you know which way you’re going._

When she and Cicero settled, still she looked, every night that the sky was free of clouds. Everything might be changed, her friends and her world and all she had known might be lost, but Sasha would not be.

When the first of the children came to them, Sasha took them on the roof and showed them. Told them all the stories, the ones she could remember anyway, and if she made up bits she couldn’t, well, they didn’t know the difference. And she always showed them Polaris. The North Star, she called it, but to her, every night when she looked for it, now more by old habit rather than anything else, it was Zolf’s Star. She kept that for herself, but she made sure the children would never be lost.

***

“What happened to him?” Little Maximus asked her, after she told him about the night on the beach.

“Well… I don’t know. He was my boss, but he had to leave, and I - I never saw him again. But, he’s tough, that one. So wherever he went, he’s – I know he’s okay.”

She reached for Little Maximus’ hand, and gave it a squeeze.


End file.
